Newsletter: June 1, 2008
Now that Hillary Clinton has given up the race for President, I have a question for you. Are you as sick
of the election as I am? I know a few of you cringe at that question because elections are "as American as
Mom and apple pie." You have to be som sort of communist to admit that you don't like the Democratic process that we
have here. Well, this is for all those people who say that we still have the best styem in the world, because
I've got a problem with it!
For the most part, the primary system could actually be the most inefficient voting method in the entire world! For over a year
now, the candidates have been crawling from state to state with basically the same canned messages and the same nonsense.
I get the idea that the
candidates should be able to be seen and heard before people can make a decision and the primary process gives access to different states
as the election unfolds. Maybe it's a good idea in theory, but in execution, what we mostly heard over the last year was a bunch of
garbage! Do I care about Obama's pastor? Do I care that Hillary made some foolish comments? Instead of gaining some
solid content over the entire primary process, we actually received a drawn out tabloid-fest of nonsense.
I actually find that the election is personally insulting to my intelligence. The issues that are at the center of attention
are so foolish and absurd that I fully expect Britney Spears to be one of the candidates. Don't we get enough fluff
from that part of the entertainment world that we don't need a year of it with the primaries? It absolutely shocks
me that people aren't revolted by the amount of time and money that go into this process, and that waste is
multiplied by the knowledge that our votes don't really count for much.
The votes of the people don't matter because the delegates and super-delegates are the ones who will officially vote at
the national convention. I can't actually blame them for having someone vote by proxy for us. If we're so easily
motivated by the foolish messages that are usually at the center of attention, then can we honestly be trusted with a REAL vote?
The delegates and super-delegates
are state and local party activists or formerly elected, Democratic officeholders at the federal or statewide level.
These are the people who make the real decision at the national convention and the interesting thought is that this vote can
go against the popular vote from the states.
The complete inefficiency of the primary process is something that should offend every person in this country, whether
they vote or not. Not to be overly dramatic, but the world is facing a historic crisis that will change the lives of
almost everyone on the planet. We are seeing the tip of the ice burg of the end of the oil economy and rising gas
prices for the consumer are just the first symptom of huge problems on the horizon.
Even with evidence of rising food and energy prices staring us square in the face, the candidates are spending hundreds of millions of dollars
during this primary and hundreds of thousands of people are working, traveling and using resources to get their candidate
elected.
It's not just the fact that the candidates waste all of these resources to give us so little substance in return, but
the glaring reality is that there are so many other options available. With the technology we have today, candidates
should be able to expose their message to the people with blogs, videos, interviews and broadcasts. To be honest, the
candidates could be given a month, maybe even two months to produce their messages and make them available to the
entire country. Then, we could all vote on the same day and then a winner could be announced. Then, you could skip
the National convention and go right into November. No years of campaigning and endless primaries. No waste of
time, money and resources.
In a true sense, an election is supposed to deliver the best candidate as the winner. In our party system, that is not
always the case and our system isn't even guaranteed to deliver the candidate who wins the popular vote. I would go as
far as to say, why shouldn't Clinton be able to still run for President? I think there should be more than two viable
options and if our country can't deliver more than two candidates, then we really are in trouble.
In the end, we are a victim of tradition. We have to stick to what has been done in the past no matter what options
are now available and what challenges are lurking on the horizon. The world is going to change a great deal in the
very near future and if we aren't deft enough to adapt quickly, then our best system in the world will be just
another anchor on our country's progress.
I know that there are many people out there who share my thoughts. They are tired of waste and stupidity and they
want to vote for change. The rest of the country is safe though because we have delegates to protect us from
ourselves.
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